Why are buyer personas so boring?

Do we really need buyer personas?

I know, I know, I know my job is market research and my whole role is to help clients to better know their target audiences and what makes them tick
I see and have written hundreds of personas over the years and some of them I’ve been proud of

Personas are a useful shorthand way to describe a target audience

They summarise, they simplify, they characterise
The entire team can make decisions with the same composite picture of the target audience
The best versions start with a segmentation study that tells you audiences think, how they interact with your brand and your category, what they want and where to find them
They can be beautifully crafted

BUT, here is the thing

For all their benefits, they rarely inspire action. They don’t help you write better copy, post more interesting content or solve their problems. And quite honestly, they are often boring

I think that is for 3 reasons:
1. They are 2 dimensional
2. They don’t focus on specific problems or pain points
3. They lack emotional content

Let me give you two examples:

Which is a better starting point for new ideas?

1. Imagine you are an estate agent with who wants to market their services to Emily

Emily is 36, she is a working mum and has 3 kids aged 2-6
She is looking to buy a new house near to a good school
Her current house feels too small now that the kids are growing, she is frustrated with her lack of storage space

Or

Emily needs to move asap…..there is Lego everywhere

2. Imagine you are creating a new meal kit to help Sarah

Sarah is a busy mum and is always juggling her time
So, she looks for quick and easy meal solutions

Or

At least one night a week she makes dinner with her jacket on

The first ones tell us about her and her problems – there is nothing wrong with them

In the second ones we feel her pain – we know exactly how we can help

If we are going to go to the trouble (and expense) of creating personas we need to avoid the generic descriptions and remember that understanding proper people and their pain points will lead to richer ideas